Square Enix Trademarks The Portopia Serial Murder Case In Australia & Europe

Japanese industry giant Square Enix has recently trademarked the 1983 adventure title The Portopia Serial Murder Case in Australia and Europe. This comes almost five months after the company filed a trademark for the game in Japan way back in November 2022. Hence, fans are predicting that a remaster or remake of the mystery game is in the works at the Japanese video game company.

Square Enix officially trademarked The Portopia Serial Murder Case in Australia on April 13, per the filing. On the other hand, the publisher’s filing for the game in Europe was confirmed and made public on April 17. These trademarks most probably mean that a remake or remaster is likely to release outside Japan.

The original version of the mystery title is one of the most influential video games of all time. Not only did The Portopia Serial Murder Case lay the basis for the visual novel genre, but it also popularised detective games as a whole. Besides being the first “real detective adventure” title, as per Square Enix, the game is also credited with innovating the point-and-click interface the genre is now popular for.

The Portopia Serial Murder Case is famous for influencing some visionary video game designers. One of them is none other than the legendary Metal Gear franchise creator Hideo Kojima. In 2005, the creator revealed that Portopia is one of the three most influential games he’s played and how it influenced Snatcher. As an ode to the classic visual novel, he hid its PC-6001 version as a secret in Metal Gear Solid V.

Besides Kojima, The Portopia Serial Murder Case also influenced famous Zelda director Eiji Aonuma. The adventure game was one of the first titles Aonuma came across while playing video games. He played the game right after getting a job at Nintendo to understand what TV games were. However, probably the most important creator the mystery title influenced was its own writer: Yuji Horii.

Many compare The Portopia Serial Murder Case to Super Mario Bros. and Tetris in terms of influence. When you consider how it essentially gave birth to a new genre and expanded the potential of video games with its sophisticated plot, it’s easy to understand why. Square first launched it on the NEC PC-6001 in 1983 but had to develop ports for PC and Nintendo Famicom following its popularity.